Hello - Feeling so much better today....weaning myself off the pain meds. Drawing is so much better with out the narcotics!
Here is the proof......
May 7, 2012
A new drawing.....soon to be fabric - I hope!
and since I had not been outside for a few days and it is REALLY BEAUTIFUL here is one more pic....
My volunteer sunflowers.....so exciting! I do have to separate them and replant but it is wonderful that so many have come back from seeds of last years blooms.
XO
Valori
Here are the other two buckles.... My computer is at the Doc! It wouldn't start yesterday - PANIC!!! But luckily I have a Mac Guy to help save my ass!
So when blogging on my iPad I can't attach as many photos..... Hence the second post.
XO
Valori
PS here is Twigs website www.twigs-sisters.com
Happy New Year my friends! I wish you all the best 2012!
XO
Valori
Happy Thanksgiving my friends!!!! We are waiting for my turkey to get done so I thought I would give a shout out..... So love Thanksgiving. Family, food, wine, etc!!! Love it!!!
Have a great day!!!
XO
Valori
Two years ago a man came into my life that I fell head over heels in love with!Teague Ashton Kennedy turns two today! I love you my sweet boy!
I am so lucky and blessed!!
Now, I'm having had a few glasses of wine and am enjoying my family......
Have a great evening!
XO
Valori
It was a lazy day here at the Kennedy House!! We played outside all day... It was wonderful to be with the kids and enjoy my garden! Hope you had a great day!!!
XO
Valori
It is official I have an sinus infections....god, I feel like my head is going to explode. Yuck! I have to be happy that it is now and not next week when I have so much going on. Well, I always have so much going on....today will be napping and working on birds. Gives me an excuse to sit on the couch. I would rather not have the pounding head but can't be too picky......
xoxo
Valori
The fog in our canyon is how my head feels....
Nothing like being sick and having a kitten cuddle with you! Love my kitties.....hate being sick.....
Home again....it is so great to see the kids and play with the puppy and kittens. I am such a home body. Today I am hanging out in the studio working on my next fall collection, starting with the drawings. Going to market does get all the creative juices flowing. I had ideas of what I was going to do for the fall but it was just in my head not quite ready to come out. Now after market I am ready to start drawing....god that feels good!
Now, where did I leave off yesterday.....oh yeah, we had started our "speed" sewing for Wednesday's photo shot. We were successful at finishing all of the projects on the list.
Mom with the projects at the lake...
We do tend to re-organize the "set" if we need to. There was this log seat that someone made up by the fire pit and we wanted to move it down to the beach. Dang it was heavy....
This is where we set the seat...thought it was a great place to sit the pillows.
A bit of mom and Carolyn doing work to set up the next shot.
The Luna quilt and pillows that we made. The quilt is very simple yet visually complex because of the fabric itself.
There is not much quilting on it for this photo but over the weekend I was able to add some more. Worked for the photo...
The Anya Bag...this bag is so easy to make and very versatile. I just LOVE how the fabric looks with the worn out stump and rocks.
This is the skirt that we put together....it is an A-line but a little straighter, does that make sense? The skirt hits just below the belly button and the hem is mid shin....I have a great friend, Nick, who is a dressmaker that I am working with him on doing the pattern and sizing it out. I don't know how to do that but I love to design the clothes....great to have good partners to help you out where you might fall a bit short. And I might learn something new also. Fun!
The things you do for a photo....
The grass that is starting to turn yellow looks so great with the colors in the skirt....
And that is it...our photo shot, a little edited because I took a lot of photos but you get the idea.
The fabric and my patterns should be out in December...I will keep you posted.
Hope you have a great day!! Back to my drawing...yeah! love it when I am inspired to draw!!!!
XOXOXOX
Valori
My new friend Zoe has posted a Day in the Life....of me...check it out.
http://zoeanddrew.blogspot.com/2010/08/day-in-life-valori-wells.html
Have a great day!!!!
Valori
Had to include a photo that my lovely husband took of me and the kiddos on our vacation.....love it!
We are in Ashland, Oregon on our way to the cabin for a week - with no phone, internet or tv...it will be perfect. But as I just can't control myself...I must put a post in for the next images of the Quilt Show. There is so much going on in our lives that I just don't have a lot of time to blog. So, here I am posting photos on vacation.....ENJOY!!!
I will begin with some quilts from Ricky and Alex....
These next quilts are by our featured quilter...
Now on with the show.....
My girlfriend Carolyn's youngest.....in his Quilt Show onesie that mom had made for the boys...
Nun at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show....in her habit (is that how you spell that?)
Couple of mom's quilts...
Here is the building after the firemen have left....middle of the day.
I had to walk to mom's house during the day and came across this house that was in the spirit of the show....I thought it was pretty cool!!!
Snow cones on a hot day how can you go wrong?
Taking a walk in the afternoon...
Part of the Quilt Rescue Team....they have too much fun!
This quilt was all salvages....I was actually inspired by this...wasn't too keen on the salvage quilts before but this is really beautiful.
Local kids and their music....the girl in the middle was really good and we bought her cd....some crazy talent in our little town. (not that they all weren't awesome...but she had a cd)
Drawing chalk blocks at the kid area....it was really fun.
Teague even did a block...
Love this quilt it was in the lawn next to the shop and I kept seeing it and just had to take a photo of it.
Grandma's and the kids....I will end with this tonight as I need to edit some more photos. I have the teacher tent to show you....
Have a great week.....
XOXOXOX
Valori
I have been meaning to show you the new patterns that we did out of Nest for spring.....life has been crazy as summer begins here in Sisters. We are gearing up for Quilt Show and Quilter's Affair...this year being the 35th year there are so many extra projects.... I will share some sneak peaks of a couple of fun projects soon. First, how about the patterns....
Annie - inspired by Teague's baby quilt...which is included in the pattern.
Nested bags....they are too fun. I use my small prototype for my make-up....one of the best aspects of these bags are how easy and quick they are to make. As you all know - need the quick, satisfying projects in my house.
My Sweet Girls.....in their skirts. Which the pattern included the formula to make a skirt for any size girl....mine will be done once I have a few hours for me - ha! Too bad I need sleep otherwise I would have lots of time for me....
I love these place mats...over the holiday season I made mom a bunch of place mats and napkins out of my fabric that I had silk screened and embroidered on.....
So there you go...the newest patterns to come out of the studio. Oh, the studio so neglected these days! Soon my friend I will be there again....painting, sewing, creating....rather than walking by dreaming of time in my favorite space.....
XOXO
Valori
Ok so posting on the iPhone while walking the baby in the stroller I had a bit of typo.... Sorry - I meant to say I'm going to miss Carolyn....
Happy Mother's Day to all the lovely mama's out there!!! I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday. I had a great - very mellow - day with the fam....can't complain there wasn't much drama and there wasn't any work! I should say very little drama with a 2 year old.
I love to have a photo of my kids on mother's day...I find that with three kids it is a lot harder to get everyone performing...but it was not too bad. Teague didn't like the wind so he kept putting his head down and the girls...well, they were themselves!
For my mom - the woman who has everything that she wants or needs - on Mother's day I painted her a bird....another painting for her collection.
Not the best photo of the painting but I had to take a quick one before I wrapped it.
This week is it before market so we are sending off boxes of booth decorations and handouts. It will be good to get everything done and just go to the show. I will share all the projects that have been made out of nest...soon!!
Have a great day!!
XOXOX
Valori
We are living in the house of germs.....about two weeks ago Violette had a low grade fever for 4 days. !st doctor visit claimed tonsillitis.....three days later more low grade fevers and Olivia had pink eye - again - the fifth time since mid December.....so off to the doctor for the second time. Violette was diagnosed with pneumonia - mild case - but explained a lot! Olivia, yep, pink eye again but we were told that it could just be the start of the virus that Violette had. Then Ross starts to get sick......Olivia comes down with a really bad cold and low grade fever......off to the doctor for the third visit. Teague with me because he was seeming a little under the weather and I wanted to just have the doc take a quick peak. Luckily Olivia just had a really bad cold....no pneumonia. As mid week rolls around the girls are on the up swing but poor Teague now has Olivia's cold. I feel so bad for him, coughing, having me suck his nose with the blue bulb, having a hard time nursing, a low grade fever - just all around miserable. Ross seems to be on the up side of his cold and me.....well, I was doing great until yesterday when I just started feeling not quite right. Today sill just on the brink....might get sick but might get better.
AAAHHHH!! I can't wait until Spring and we are not all stuck inside the house.In the mean time working as much as I can in the studio between nursing duties......lots of projects in the works. Spring Market is coming up quick and I do not have my sample yardage yet so I am making prototypes of patterns to get the kinks worked out.
Here is a snip-it of one of the paintings of "Nest" my newest collection of fabric......
With my fingers crossed I am heading back to work in hopes of a productive day with out feeling worse.
XOXOX
Valori
Wednesday, October 7th 12:05p.m. Teague Ashton Kennedy arrived....safe and sound, 6lb, 15 oz, 20" long. It was an amazing birth to me - well, I guess they all have been - this was just very different from the rest. Not surprising.....he is probably going to do that to me for the rest of my life. We are now home...a family of 5.....wow!
Olivia and Teague - can't get Vi to sit long enough to take a photo - Ross got this with his phone. Olivia is a great big sister. I will post more when I get some taken.
XOXO
Valori
Hello - we are back from our annual August Vacation to Berney, California. Every year we visit this amazing cabin that our dear friends so graciously let us use. It is truly a spiritual place......Ross and I went to the cabin on our first vacation and have been every year - well except the years when I was pregnant with the girls. It is one of the few places that I go that I can totally let go of work and just be with my family. No phones, no internet, just us and the woods, and the creek, a perfect escape from the day to day. I always take my old poloroid with paints and paper and make a book out of the funky photos that we shot. This year both of the girls helped me paint. The only sad part was that we had to leave a couple of days early because of two fires in the area it was really smokey. We made the best of it and went back to Ashland - one of our favorite citys to visit. Since we were home early we moved the girls into the same room - it has been a really good transition. They sleep together so well and really have fun sharing a room. Now we just have to get the babies room all done.
When we returned I had my sample yardage of the 6 new home decorator fabrics that should be arriving to a local quilt shop near you........
I did four new colors of Del Hi and two that were in the spirng collection. I am working on a free bag pattern to go with the fabric. I will post soon.......
One of the other projects I am working on is the spring '10 collection of fabric - I took some sneak peak shots of the paintings to share.......not all of the designs are painted but they will be by the end of this week......I want to get everything sent out to Free Spirit by next week.
This week mom and I took my nephew back to Portland after his weekend visit with Meme and Papa and I got to meet my new neice, Samantha.......too cute!!!
Also, on this trip I was lucky enough to meet a gal that I TOTALLY admire - Kara Larson.....Who is Kara Larson? Well, let me tell you......she is an incredible clothing designer from Portland - all of her designs are made in Portland by local sewers. Little did I know that we have been clothing our girls in her designs for years.....I had one of those AAHA moments when I connected her childrens line "Wild Carrots" with her women's line "Kara-Line". Along with being a talented designer she also has two of my favorite stores in Portland, Grasshopper - the kids store - and Tumbleweed - the woman's store. I am so excited that we are going to work together with some of my fabric and her deisgns......I can't wait to have one of her dresses out of my fabric. 
This is one of her dresses, Coco - even fits my 7 months of prego.......the nice thing is that it is a wrap dress and it will fit me when I am not pregnant.........and will be great for nursing.....I also really like the Mae dress and am thinking of getting it......
The girls in two of the Wild Carrots dresses........this was on Friday when Liv had her 4th birthday.
Aren't they too CUTE!!! It has been a busy week home from vacation.....it always seems like you are playing catch up after going on vacation......oh well, worth it.
I must get back to the family.....today is Ross and I's sixth wedding anniversary! We are having a family day and then the girls are staying the night at Mimi and Papa's and we are going out to dinner....I can't remember the last time we had an adults only dinner.....it will be strange not saying, "you need to eat" or "sit down" or "you have to try at least one bite".......but I guarentee that a majority of our conversation will be about them.
Have a great day!!!!
XOXO
Valori
Well, last week sure did fly by.....I so thought that I would get some more photos of the show up. AAHHH, life gets in the way. Maybe not in the way but consuming.....Sunday was my birthday.....36. Part of me can't believe that I am 36. Not sure how to explain the feeling. Just seems like time is flying by......We had a great day - went to breakfast in town and then went out to Camp Sherman where we have a family cabin on the Metolious River. It was so beautiful.......we pulled out the kiddy pool and I brought some painting. I was so excited when Ross told me to take some painting. I brought the one that I have been working on for mom and John's new house. I think it will be awhile until it is done. What a blast sitting out in the sun painting with the girls running around in the pool........couldn't of asked for a better day! What a great husband I have.
Now onto more Quilt Show photos......I am going to warn you I have a lot. There will be a third instalment to come. First, I have to show you my favorite quilt for this year.....it was based on Charley Harper birds. I love his work......you will have to bear with me but I shot a bunch of them, the quilting was beautiful and I was just so impressed with the interpretation of his work.
This year we had a very special Inspirational Instructor - our very own Lawry Thorn. She has taught for years and is our go to gal for beginners.......LOVE HER! Here are some of her quilts.
This is Lawry with Carolyn....we did a bunch of interviews that day - Miss Carolyn is starting to show her little baby belly. We just found out this week that she is having a boy!! OH so excited!! We are going to have too much fun with our little guys.
This is how most of the Quilters see Lawry and her daughter Mindi - being the tallest they get the honor of holding quilts during lectures and the Picnic in the Park.
Lawry started working for my mom when I was six. Mindi and I have grown up together......
The two pregos and Mindi......don't we have cool shirts!
One of our interviews was with a friend of mine, Sierra Hummel. She is a great quilter and only 12. She made her fifth quilt (might be more) for her mom for Mother's day so I had to get some photo of her and her quilt.
Now, just some images that I took in the morning as I walked through town with Mom and Carolyn.
These are a couple of my friends that come to Quilt Show, Katie and Kim.....they are sisters and this is their Sister trip! It is very fun to see them. The quilt behind us is one that they made together, Kim lives in California and Katie in Washington. They each made blocks in their prespective states and then got together to finish the quilt.
Look at these.....they had too much time on their hands and had way too much fun. 
One of my good friends, Rob Appell, came to teach for the first time and we had a special exhibit of his quilts. He was also one of our interview victims.......
I didn't get as many photos of his quilts as I thought I did......
So, this is it for tonight but there will be more tomorrow......my studio gets so hot in the afternoon and it is hard for me to work. We are having days of high 90's.....not that I am complaining because it doesn't last long and it is nice to have summer. Since our weather is only that hot for a couple of weeks we don't have AC, the studio is a sauna by 3pm.......no more painting for me in the heat. I can't concentrate. That is when I make the trip downstairs and work on my computer.
Have a great night!!
XO
Valori
I have been meaning to post the recent and earlier this year bird paintings. I finally got some decent photos of them to put on my website when the shopping cart is finished. Not sure where my obsession with the birds have come from but I am OBSESSED!!!! Next springs fabric collection that I am working on has birds.....
It is interesting how much I notice birds now - their shapes, colors, positions they sit in, or perch in, how they look when they fly........ I am not very good a photographing them the way I want, the little buggers move to fast! I think I just need practice, flowers don't move nearly as fast.
Here you go......
Ruby - the latest......
Three Little Birds.....this little guy came from a photo that mom took of a cute little bird in on her trip to Italy - he was all puffy and kinda looks like an owl.
Tweet......my mom recently purchased this one from me. My first sale of a painting......funny it was my mom!! She liked it because it is five birds and she is going to have 5 grandkids......my brother and sister-in-law are due any day with a baby girl and then with my little guy that will make five. Didn't even think of that when I painted it. I don't think I was even pregnant. Odd numbers seem to be my thing......Ross thinks it is "odd". 
Scarlet - this one and the next two are small paintings 10" and 8" as the others are at least 24". I am not as comfortable working small.....as you know from my fabric....but think it is a good idea to push myself and I really like little paintings so I am trying to paint little paintings.
Tango.....
Last but not least - Violet. When I brought the paintings back from hanging in Bend at NorthSoles, my Violette picked up this painting and says to me, "Mine". How did she know?!?!? Although she says anything is hers...."mine" is one of the favorite words.
Well, I am back to work.....we are almost set up for quilt show and I need to get a posting on our Stitchin' Post blog.....I have been TOTALLY slacking on that one.
Have a great day!!!
XOXO
Valori